Another of South Korea’s pioneering women’s golf champions is taking a bow.

Kim Mi-hyun, whose 5-foot-1 height belied one of the longest drives in women’s golf, is retiring after she plays in one more tournament: the LPGA’s annual stop in South Korea, the KEB-Hana Bank Championship in Incheon from Oct. 19-21.

Ms. Kim followed Pak Se-ri to the LPGA by one year. Her parents drove her to tournaments across the U.S. in a van. And she bagged the Rookie of the Year title just as Pak had done a year earlier, showing that Korean golf was more than just a one-woman phenomenon.

Advertisement

Ms. Kim, 34 years old, won eight LPGA tournaments. After her last win at the SemGroup Championship in 2007, she donated $100,000 of her $210,000 winnings to a small town in Kansas that had just been devastated by a tornado. She did, she later said, because she hadn’t expected to win the tournament, which was on a course unsuited to her style of play. “God gave it to me as a special present. He used me to help those people,” she said.

Ms. Kim got married in 2008, then played only half the season in 2009 before taking time off to have a baby. She played in 19 tournaments last year, but has been sidelined this year by knee and ankle injuries.

Some local news reports say Ms. Kim will start a golf school.

Earlier this year, Grace Park, the third Korean player of what became a tidal wave in the LPGA, retired after coping with injuries. She joined the big tour in 2000.

Ms. Pak, who turns 35 today, continues to play and have an impact in the game, finishing in the top 10 in nine tournaments this year. Last week, she won a KLPGA tournament, the KDB Daewoo Securities Classic in Pyeongchang.